


home is where the heart is

by meimentomori



Series: Daily Prompts [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Near Future, but they can't keep dogs at their apartment, keith's having an existential crisis save him, kosmo's a husky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 03:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17459852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meimentomori/pseuds/meimentomori
Summary: In which Lance brings home a puppy and Keith tries to tell him why they can't keep it.





	home is where the heart is

The cigarette between Keith's lips wasn't nearly enough to distract from the headache he could feel coming on.

He should've been used to fighting with Lance like this, now that they lived together. Each of them had their quirks that they were slowly discovering that caused more than a few heated arguments between each other. Like how Lance left his towels in heaps on the bathroom floor, no matter how many times Keith told him to hang them up. How Keith hardly ever bought sugar for their coffee in the morning, too used to being the only one doing the shopping to remember the brunette's sweet tooth. But what took the cake in his eyes as the worst part about living with Lance was how often he came home with something new he'd bought, saying that he thought Keith would be fine with it. And normally, he was.

Unless it was a puppy that he impulsively picked up off of the street, knowing well that their apartment complex didn't allow animals.

"I couldn't have just left him there!" Lance yelled defensively, watching the husky as it scampered around the room. "If I hadn't gotten to him as soon as I did, who knows what could've happened to the poor guy?"

Keith crossed his arms across his chest, purple irises igniting with flames as precursor of how heated this argument was about to become. He could put up with some of Lance's shenanigans. If it had been a fish or a frog that he'd brought home, he wouldn't have batted an eye at it. He'd even thought about buying the brunette an aquarium for his birthday in a few months, filling it with an assortment of brightly colored fish that he was sure Lance would enjoy. But Keith forgot all about that right then. All that he could think about was how screwed they were going to be when the landlord got a noise complaint from the puppy's incessant scratching at their couch, which would get them kicked out as soon as she heard so much as a single bark. 

"Just because I was an orphan, doesn't mean we can save every creature that's ever been deserted by their family."

Lance frowned. "You're telling me that you would've left him out there to starve to death?"

Keith's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Lance sighed, shaking his head in disappointment as he went and grabbed the husky off of the couch, scolding it gently for the claw marks it'd already managed to leave behind in the fabric. Oh. So that's what he meant by starving. Keith tried his hardest to make it look as if he weren't bothered by how malnourished the puppy looked, but Lance could see right through him. The more that he looked at the creature, the more horrific it became. Its skin stretched tightly around its ribs, so much that it looked like any amount of movement would've torn it to shreds like a piece of tissue paper. The burst of energy it'd had earlier was quickly fading, leading the puppy to take a nap in Lance's arms.

This would've been so much easier if they'd decided to buy a house instead of renting an apartment.

Keith supposed it was too much of a commitment to have asked something that large of him at the time that they'd bought this place. Back then, they'd only been dating for a couple of months. They had no idea if their relationship would even last at that point. Let alone, if they were compatible when it came to living with each other. Maybe now, if Keith brought up the idea, Lance wouldn't see it as far fetched anymore. A month from today marked their two year anniversary, a milestone that neither of them ever thought that they would get to. But, for all the grievances that they had when it came to living with each other, the perks outweighed them any day of the week.

Even though Lance had a habit of stealing covers, Keith couldn't help but relish the peaceful look on his face as he slept, laughing at the bit of drool that trailed out of the corner of his mouth. Even when they argued over what movie they should go out and see together, Keith adored the way that Lance got so passionately defensive over whatever guilty pleasure romantic comedy or super hero movie he was trying so hard to coax him into watching. Even on the mornings when Lance hogged the shower for nearly two hours, Keith couldn't help but hum along to whatever song he was singing loudly to himself, wondering if he'd ever gotten vocal lessons before with how beautiful his voice was. Keith loved having Lance around, even more than he loved being alone.

It was a cliche thing to admit, even to himself, but Keith had realized recently just how much being alone sucked. There was no one that you could ask to run out to the store and get you medicine when you were sick or talk to about the newest song from one of your favorite bands. An emptiness followed you everywhere that you went, begging to be filled by something other than an a too tidy living room and a silence that even music couldn't mask. And, the benefit of having someone you loved living with you, was that the two of you knew that you had the other to come back to at the end of the day. Keith finally had made himself a place that he could call home, with someone he didn't feel like he deserved to call his boyfriend. But this was something that he couldn't back down on, as much as he wanted to. Rules were rules and, unfair or not, they'd be homeless if the so much as disobeyed them.

Surely Lance had to understand that by now.

"Lance." Keith lowered his voice so that he wouldn't wake the sleeping husky, though there was still a good amount of venom in it. "Guilt-tripping me is only going to make things worse." He sat down on the couch, mulling over exactly what to say in his head for a minute. "You know that I'd keep it in a heartbeat if this place would allow us to, but right now, we can't risk losing it while we don't have any other alternate places scouted out that allow pets without a deposit."

"We can hide him in our closet!" Lance replied, gesturing towards their bedroom, though his argument didn't shift Keith's stance in the slightest. "Come on! He'll be quiet as long as we feed him and play with him."

"Would you take your head out of the clouds for two fucking seconds and listen to me?" Keith could hear his voice raising in volume but he couldn't stop it. Lance was being ridiculous. "We. Can't. Keep. It. Okay?"

"Would you at least let me talk to the landlord first before we decide?" Lance sat down beside him, blue eyes wide and more puppy-like than the one in his arms. "Please? I'm sure she'll budge if she hears me out!" 

"Then she'd know we have a dog, genius!" The level of stupidity that Lance had reached had sent him over the edge as he got up and grabbed his jacket, fumbling through his pockets to make sure that he had his cigarettes and lighter on him. "I'm gonna go out for a smoke. See you later."

"Keith, wai-"

He shut the door before he could hear whatever Lance had to say next.

Keith had been sitting on the sidewalk for what seemed like hours now, even though it'd not even been twenty minutes, judging by the time on his phone. He took another drag from his cigarette, watching the smoke billow out of his mouth as he exhaled. Lance had been on him to quit for a while now but he hadn't bothered to listen. It wasn't that he was addicted to the nicotine. Not that he would've even known what that felt like. For him, it was more about the feeling that he got when he had a cigarette between his fingers. Power might've been the easiest way to describe it, though it was much more complicated than that. People wouldn't come up to bother you if you were smoking somewhere alone. They'd either be too intimidated or too disgusted to even think about approaching you.

Everyone except for Lance, who had no issue with taking the empty spot on the curb next to Keith, even if it was right within the path of his smoke.

“Come inside, I’m sorry.”

Keith dropped his cigarette butt to the ground, stomping out the remaining embers underneath the sole of his shoe. “Not until you apologize.”

“I just said I’m fucking sorry, Keith!” "Did something happen while I was gone? Or is this just another one of your moods?"

Keith didn't say anything for a minute. Just kept his eyes focused on the road in front of him, watching the cars as they sped by. A small smile found its way to his lips as a scene from a daydream played through his head. The two of them, with the husky all grown up and standing tall on Lance's lap as it poked its face out the window, driving through the countryside with no destination in mind during the summer. The wind blowing through their hair, music cranked up as loud as the speakers would let them, belting out the words like it was the last day that they'd ever get to sing. Keith wanted the two of them to last. He wanted them to be able to find a place where they could keep the dog as their pet and raise him together. 

"Have you ever thought about the future?" Keith looked down at his hands, balled into fists in his lap as he tried to ignore the uncertainty in his voice. "About us?"

"Of course I have." Lance paused until Keith looked up at him, the latter noting just how patient the former had become with him in the time they'd spent together. "What's this about all of a sudden?"

Keith nodded, reluctant to ask his next question. Wouldn't Lance find it cheesy if he came clean to him all of a sudden like this? If he admitted just how much he'd fallen in love with him over the past five years that they'd known each other? Keith didn't even know what he would do if Lance said no. If he brushed off everything that had transpired between them like it'd meant nothing more to him than a one night stand with a stranger he'd met at a bar. But now wasn't the time for second guessing. Keith needed to know, once and for all, how long Lance was willing to spend with him. How far he intended for things to go between them, before he stole so much of his heart away that there wouldn't be enough for him to live on with if they broke up at some point in the future.

He might as well have been proposing, for how nervous he was.

"Am I in it?"

Keith swore he could see Lance's breath hitch in his throat, sending him into a moment of panic. Of course, he'd gotten his hopes up too high yet again. Optimism had been the root of every heartbreak he'd ever experienced in his life, so why would this time be any different? Only until Lance pulled Keith's face closer to his, pressing their lips gently together, did the tightness in his chest and racing of his heart subside. He wished that he didn't get flushed so easily around the brunette, with how hot he could feel his entire face and neck getting. It even spread down to his chest, making Keith pull his jacket in tighter so that Lance couldn't see. He had a habit of teasing him when he made him blush, though it was usually done in a different context.

And not on a public sidewalk.

"Is that even a question?" Lance's voice was just above a whisper, the tone broken softly. "Yes, Keith." He threw a curious look in Keith's direction and he knew what question was coming next. "Why wouldn't you be?"

There were a million reasons Keith could think of to counter that. He was too emotionally closed off. He had too much of a temper for him to handle. The reasons came to him by the dozen, overflowing insecurities that he had when it came to himself. The idea of someone loving him, despite them all, both terrified and amazed Keith. It made him want to question Lance rigorously until he admitted that he'd been planning on breaking it off with him for weeks now while wanting to wrap him up in his arms so that he could never escape. So that the two of them would be together, forever, and he wouldn't lose the wonderful feeling that he had whenever Lance walked into a room.

He'd taken the world off of his shoulders and replaced it with all of the loving looks and carefully thought up pick-up lines that Keith kept track of over the years, which would take more than a life time for him to thank him for.

But hell, he'd die trying.

"I don't know." Keith brushed a piece of Lance's hair behind his ear, something he did whenever he didn't know how to keep the conversation going. "I just thought that if we were keeping the husky and all, house shopping would be kind of hard if there was uncertainty between us."

Lance's classic, dumb grin that made Keith want to kiss him crept up onto his face. "So we're keeping Kosmo?"

Keith chuckled. "That's it's name?" 

"His, and yes." Lance stood up and held out his hand for Keith to take, pulling him up off the ground and into his arms for a hug. "Come on, I think we have some House Hunters to binge."

"Don't you mean House Hunters International?" Keith asked tauntingly as he listened to his boyfriend groan, rolling his eyes at him while he started to crack up.

More grateful than anything that Lance was going to be the one by his side for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired by a bunch of other fic writers and decided to make this a bit of a series where I take prompts daily (as often as I can, I'm not pushing myself) and write a fic based on it. 
> 
> Today's was a dialogue prompt, so pretty much the entire, "Come inside, I'm sorry"/"Not until you apologize"/"I just said I was fucking sorry" bit was from that.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
